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Sunday, June 30, 2013

"MAKE-UP!" screams MK anytime she sees me getting out my make-up. She comes RUNNING to do make-up, too. She is always trying to convince me that she just NEEDS mascara, and looks great with lipstick, and really wishes she could have eye shadow. She LOVES make-up. I took these pictures this morning as we were getting ready for church. She found my small flip mirror so she could watch herself using all the make-up brushes.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Thursday, June 27, 2013

He was very concerned because he lost his top front tooth during the night...and couldn't find it. He wanted to find it so he could leave it out for the Toothfairy. After searching and searching his fort he slept in last night, he finally found it. He was SO excited. He then had to wash it because someone told him he'd get more money for it if it was sparkly clean.

Monday, June 24, 2013

No, we didn't go see actual naked ladies. We went to see the band The Bare Naked Ladies in concert at the USANA Amphitheater. (My mom was SHOCKED when I told her we were going to see Bare Naked Ladies. She didn't know what to think about it. I had to explain it was the name of a band.)

R and me before the concert

BNL on stage with the moon in the sky behind the stage.

It was a fun concert. BNL is quite funny. They told jokes, goofed around, and changed up lyrics of songs to be silly and to fit the location. Ben Folds Five and Guster opened the show and put on good concerts as well. Between sets, Guster was out in the open eatery area putting on an acoustic show with people gathering around as close as 5 feet away.

We had a great time. The Amphitheater was a pretty awesome venue, too. Would definitely see a show there again.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Yesterday was Scout Day Camp for C and S' cub scout den. S isn't officially a scout yet, but boys who have a summer birthday are invited to come. And, I've been asked to help out the scout den again, this time as an assistant den leader. It was a very fun filled day at Camp Jeremiah Johnson. They boys made a craft, made air rockets they shot off with an air gun, did group/partner races, climbed a rock way, shot BB guns, and learned archery.

C lining up his arrow

You can't see his face, but this is S. The first two shots he was thoroughly confused and frustrated with the whole thing. One of the camp counselors came to him and spent some one-on-one time with him showing him how to do it all. Then S shot off the third shot by himself and shot a bullseye. Every shot after that was pretty on target. Wow!

S learning archery

S on the rock wall.

S on climbing wall

C on the rock wall. The object wasn't to just climb high but to go around the entire wall. C went around a few times.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

While C and S were at Chess Camp, MK and I played. The chess camp is held in Salt Lake City, near the U of U Stadium. For us, that is a LONG drive. So, MK and I would drop the boys off by 10 am for their camp, go play for 5 hours, pick the boys up at 3 pm, then drive home.

The first day, MK and I went to a movie. At nearby discount movie theater, MK and I saw "Escape From Planet Earth" in 3D.

MK getting ready for the movie to start

After the movie, we went shopping. I used all my rewards from Old Navy and got $143.00 of clothes for free. Love it. We then bought lunch and ate it at Sugar House Park and played.

The second day, MK and I did some more shopping, ate lunch with my cousin, then played at a splash pad park. MK was SO happy to run around in the water.

MK in her new sassy pink swimsuit

MK at the Splash Pad

MK at the Splash Pad

The third day, we hit the quilt shops. Wednesday was the first day in a Utah Quilt Shop Hop, so we went to take advantage of the deals and prizes.

One of the quilt stores is located in Gardner Village. We had a great time walking around all the shops.

MK at Gardner Village

MK at Gardner Village

While browsing around Pine Needles, I found this funny embroidered pillow.

Sisters are like ladybugs - they are little ladies that bug each other

Friday, June 14, 2013

At last year's Utah State Chess Tournament, we found TNT Chess Camp that provides chess camps taught by their teenage children who are all nationally ranked chess players. Both boys had a great time last summer and were eager to attend again this year. They spent time playing chess, learning strategy, playing other games, and having a great time.

On the last day, they participate in a tournament. The kids get to pick the prize they want based on where they placed in the tournament. C was so happy he got the chess set he wanted. S really wanted one of the chess books, but the books were among the first things to go. He was still very happy with the chess set he picked out.

S & C

Both C and S have been excited to show us things they learned at camp.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

A couple years ago, I took a class about Free Motion Quilting. I'm glad I took it, even if I really wasn't ready skill-wise to understand most of it and haven't used it since. I kept thinking about over the years, and it has made me aware of all the possibilities out there.

With me working on the mini quilt, I don't want to pay someone to quilt it. That would be rather dumb. I also don't want to just quilt it with straight lines. That would be rather dull. So, I pulled out my notes and samples from the class. I also pulled up freemotionquilting.blogspot.com for where to start. I've been following Leah Day for a while now.

But before I could get started, I had to fix my tension problem.

The stitches on the top would look just fine, but the back would look like this:

The stitches weren't meeting in the middle like they should.

What to do? How to fix this? I did what anyone would do. I called my mom.

My mom suggested I make sure everything is clean and oiled. Then she said I'd just have to play around with the tension settings. So, I did just that. I had to get the manual out to figure out how to change the tension and not make it worse. After about and hour, I finally had success.

Now that I had removed that hurdle, I had to actually practice quilting. I hadn't done for 2 years. And I had only tried it that one time. And I wasn't even good at it then.

But here is my first attempt a learning to stipple. I did as suggested by starting off with big loopy letter U's. I then tried to move it around. Sometimes I did better than other times. But I still think it's not so bad for a first attempt.

Then I tried to make the stippling smaller, and failed. couldn't really do it on a small scale and not have a million stitches all together. I tried a loopy stippling--I like that one. I tried a paisley design--I like it, but would need a finer thread if I were ever to use it. I then tried to do a design called McTavishing. I was failing miserably when I ran out of bobbin thread, so I just called it a day.

Now that I have the tension all sorted out, there are so many possibilities.

I'm getting really excited to quilt my own mini quilt, even if it does make me panic slightly as I don't want to ruin all my piecing.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

I've mentioned before that I'm part of Amazon Vine where I get some select items for free in exchange for an honest review. Somethings I've gotten have been awesome and some others have been disappointing--it totally runs the gambit.

Well, a couple weeks ago, I was able to get a baseball pitchback/rebounder. I wasn't sure how it would work, if it would be useful for C, or what. But I am so glad I got it. It's been perfect! C can practice his throwing and fielding anytime he wants without the need to beg and plead with S to play with him. S and MK do play with it as well as R and me, but C is the one mostly using it.

I recorded this video to use as part of my Amazon review, but thought I'd post it here as well because it just makes me laugh. It isn't long. It's about half a minute showing C throwing and catching the ball. The best part is you can hear S cheering C on every time he makes a catch.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

There are many activities and fundraisers at the Utah Quilt Guild's Annual Quilt Festival. Last week I showed off the quilt block I made for the "Save the Boobies" fundraiser. This week, I've been working on a mini quilt. The perimeter can be no larger than 80". People make whatever suits their fancy and donate them. Then, festival attendees can buy raffle tickets to win the one they like.

Originally, I was going to do this design as a block for the "Save the Boobies" fundraiser. I was VERY excited to do it. However, when I looked closer at the instructions for the "Save the Boobies," I discovered one was supposed to make a FLOWER block. So, this dress pattern I found wasn't going to fulfill the requirement. My mom suggest I still do it, but turn it into a mini quilt. I've never done a mini quilt, but thought I'd give it a go. Besides, it's small so it supposed to take less time.

I found this pattern on Pintrest. It's actually a paper folding technique called Iris Folding. Instead of using paper, I just used fabric. I used the same fabric I purchased for the "Save the Boobies" fundraiser. I just really like it. Once I paper pieced the dress, I had to reverse appliqué it onto the backing.

This is me pinning things in place to make sure the dress I pieced is in the correct place. I had the pattern (white paper) there to help with the placement.

My Little Pink Dress Quilt

I then appliquéd a small square next to the dress, which will be the purse.

My Little Pink Dress Quilt

My next step is to sew beads onto the purse for the purse strap and purse flap. I'll sew on beads along the neckline of the dress as well. I've already have fabric for the back of the quilt and thread to machine quilt it. I just haven't figured out how to fix my tension problem on my machine when I try to free motion quilt.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

So, we have a fruit basket we keep on counter. The kids can help themselves to fruit at anytime. We had eaten everything we had in the house. No more apples. No more juggling oranges (the kids named the small clementine oranges "juggling oranges" because you can juggle with them.) No bananas. All that was left in the fruit basket was a lime and half an lemon. MK wanted a snack, so she checked the basket and saw the lemon.

MK: Mom, can I have the lemon.

Me: You don't want the lemon.

MK: Yes I do! I like lemons. They're sweet.

Me: No. Lemons are sour.

MK: No. Lemonade is sweet. And we put lemons on our apples, and it's sweet.

Me: Fine. *holds out lemon* Here. Lick this.

MK: *licks the lemon and pulls the BEST sour face EVER!* No, I don't want it.

So we finally went shopping.

MK LOVES shopping, but the boys aren't too keen on it. I told them we'd stop to play at a park after shopping was finished IF they took care of a few chores before we left. They did their chores, we did our shopping, and we stopped to play at a new park next to Costco. They have a splash pad, but we weren't prepared with swimsuits or towels. I told them they could play and get all wet if they didn't mind driving home like that. MK and S were so excited and wasted no time getting wet. C didn't want to drive home wet, so he played at the playground.